It was perhaps fitting that in CMF's Diamond Anniversary year, the annual General Committee meeting on 6 June voted significant revisions through unanimously. However, although we have made some necessary amendments to bring ourselves up to date with changes in charity law, improve our ability to adapt to future ministry challenges, and provide better protection for our trustees and assets, we have not changed anything that is at the heart of CMF.

The following stay the same:
• Our membership basis
• Our doctrinal basis
• Our four core aims (discipleship, evangelism, mission and values) with slight rewording of the mission and values aims
• Our current 'constitution' with a few minor amendments to make it fully complementary to our new memorandum and articles
• Our current process of electing Officers, Executive Committee and General Committee
• Our current system of regional secretaries, member reps, medical school secretaries and student reps (but we have more flexibility to change this in the future)
• The current structure of the General Committee
• The current central organisation's staff structure and roles

The changes are as follows:
• We cease to be an 'unincorporated association' and become a 'charitable company limited by guarantee'
• We adopt a new governing document termed 'the memorandum and articles'
• The CMF 'Executive Committee' is renamed the 'Board of Trustees'
• The Board of Trustees is set at 12-20 with a quorum of 7 (currently 6)
• Up to two non-medically qualified members on the Board give us access to specific non-medical expertise
• The Board is elected annually by the 'members' of the new company (equivalent to the current General Committee)
• Our objects are expanded to add 'the advancement of education' and 'the relief of poverty, sickness and suffering' to our original object of 'the advancement of the Christian Faith'
• New subsidiary 'powers' are added to our four core aims or 'powers'  (discipleship, evangelism, mission and values) to give us more flexibility to adapt to future challenges and protect us against hostile actions
• The General Committee quorum is set at 25

A huge amount of work had been done by a subcommittee, by the Executive, and by professional advisers before all this was made known in detail to the entire membership. We thank you for the many endorsements received, and for your prayers. The process should move ahead smoothly over the next few months and you'll see some minor effects in due course.

General Committee

The Committee had earlier approved encouraging accounts for 2008 (a £50,000 surplus) and went on to brainstorm the future on four key issues - revitalising local fellowship, advocacy, working abroad and fundraising. Reports were received and discussed briefly, and the day was punctuated by short times of prayer.

Trevor Stammers stepped down after more than two years in the Chair and was succeeded by Nick Land, a consultant psychiatrist in Middlesborough who is the chairman of the Graduates Committee and whose management expertise has already proved invaluable.

Congratulations

Sarah Gwynne - FRCR, Faculty of Clinical Oncology

Outgoing

Stroma Beattie (Edinburgh) to Singapore
Elspeth Paterson (Edinburgh) to Pakistan
Laura Rinchey (Belfast) to Belgium

Homecoming

John Baigent (Leeds) from Cameroon
James Bunn (The Middlesex) from Malawi
Mary Bunn (Charing Cross and Westminster) from Malawi
Francesca Elloway (Bristol) from Uganda
Huw Morgan (Birmingham) from Nepal
David Tyers (Leicester) from Swaziland

Change of address abroad

Elspeth Young (Aberdeen) from Nigeria to Australia

Obituaries

John Collings-Wells (q King's College Hospital 1954; d February 2009) became a GP in Lymington with an interest in rheumatology and rehabilitative medicine. He was an honorary medical officer to the Jubilee Sailing Trust in Southampton.

Brenda Dudley (q Royal Free Hospital 1964; d March 2009) had been a clinical assistant in respiratory medicine at Watford General Hospital.

Chris Savile (q Cambridge 1952; d April 2009) became a GP in Eastbourne, and was well known in national GP circles. For many years he organised the CMF GP Bureau which after suitable vetting put Christian practices around the UK seeking a partner in touch with Christian doctors returning from the overseas mission field, and vice-versa. He handed this on to a local colleague until the changing medical scene made this approach impractical. He played a major role in developing CMF's South East Conference in the early 1990s, and was on the Council of Reference from 1989 to 1997, serving as President from 1993 to 1995.